With the enormous number of users connecting online to access a wide variety of products and services, network bandwidth is becoming a limiting factor in providing these products and services. The typical connection mode for home users is a 56K analog modem which is sufficient for surfing various web sites of interest by the user but is becoming increasingly prohibitive for network traffic that comprises streaming audio, video and lengthy file downloads. Conventional software distribution methods include providing hard copy manuals and distribution media such as floppy diskettes, and more recently, compact disks (CDs) which contain the software application files and electronic versions of the manuals.
More recently, vendors have moved to offering for purchase software applications and electronic manuals by direct download from vendor websites over a global communication network (commonly known as the Internet). This introduces enormous cost savings for the vendor by eliminating any paper costs, distribution costs, and media costs incurred by conventional methods of distribution. However, this method of distribution is very time consuming for a user who has a low bandwidth analog connection (e.g., 33K and 56K) and can even be prohibitive for those who have the more recent digital connections such as digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modems which operate in the megabyte download regime. For example, where operating systems or application bundles contain many applications, the file sizes can approach 500 megabytes or more. Download of a file this size using a 56K modem will take many hours at best, and ties up the user's telephone line, if they have only the single telephone line to connect to the network. Furthermore, the download process can be interrupted by any number of causes such as power interruptions, connection problems, etc., making such a download prospect tedious, if not nearly impossible. Therefore such massive downloads, as seems to be the current trend in software distribution, may very well be prohibitive for most users having analog connections, and even those coming online today in the presence of newer and more faster connection technologies such as DSL and cable modems.
Another headache related to existing on-line distribution methods is that vendor servers can handle only a fixed number of users who are accessing the server for a download. Therefore, users must “stand in line” to gain access to the server in order to initiate a lengthy download of the software. Thus distribution of one or more applications on the same server or even dedicated application distribution servers can be a tedious process for the user and impacting customer relations with the vendor.
Current on-line payment methods also are not well established to where the customer believes his or her account information is secure and will not be compromised during its transmission to the software vendor. Therefore, the public-switched telephone network (PSTN) remains the only secure accepted method for transmitting such account information.
However, the infrastructure exists to handle such massive download capabilities. The existing broadcast television and cable industry has such an infrastructure in place at this time. The high bandwidth of such a system would alleviate any lengthy download problems by saving many hours of dedicated connection time required for most user having analog connections. Additionally, the process would be painless for the user since programming to download a broadcast software distribution is very similar to using existing video tape recorders to record a television program. The user need not be present during the download process as it would be accomplished automatically. Furthermore, such broadcast industry also has in place the accounting and billing systems to automatically bill the user according to any particular software that may be downloaded across a broadcast channel. Therefore, it is desirable that the television broadcast infrastructure be used to distribute software to the user.